| As waters recede in Kashmir, windstorm hits Jammu | | Strong winds affect power, water supply | | Akshay Azad
JAMMU, Oct 8: Even as flood waters receded in Kashmir, a strong windstorm hit Jammu province during the preceding night.
The storm caused by western disturbance created havoc across Jammu province, inflicting massive damage to infrastructure of Power Development Department, plunging several areas of city and other districts into darkness, which in turn also affected potable water supply to many parts of city.
Sources in PDD informed Early Times that nearly 50 poles of High Tension (HT) wires in Gandhi Nagar division suffered damages in windstorm while as same number of poles of Low Tension (LT) wires along with supply wires in various areas have been damaged.
They further said that the localities, where there was abundance of trees, massive damaged to poles and supply wires were recorded. "Majority of areas had plunged into darkness due to last night windstorm followed by rains across Gandhi Nagar division of PDD. The main damage is caused to the supply lines by the felling of trees", Executive Engineer of Gandhi Nagar area, AK Shibar said.
He further said that since morning the department's man force was on job for restoration of power supply. "Almost 80 percent power supply has been restored in the area and remaining will be restored soon", he said.
Moreover, Superintendent Engineer of PDD, Sunil Gupta informed that since morning they were in the field to restore the power supply, which has been snapped in almost all areas.
He further maintained that power infrastructure has suffered massive damage in the areas, where the trees were in abundance. "Along Ranbir Canal, many poles and wires were damaged, but the department has so far not made any assessment of losses", he said, adding that till evening the power supply would be restored in almost all areas.
Sources in Public Health Engineering Department informed that the affected power supply had also disrupted the water supply in the Jammu city.
"The power supply to Sheetli filtration plants, which supplied potable water to maximum areas of Jammu city, got snapped due to which water is not supplied", an official said.
He further maintained that some of the overhead tanks had some stored water, which was supplied to various localities, but due to power failure, the water pumps got dysfunctional, disrupting water supply to many localities.
An Agriculture Extension Officer informed that paddy crop which was awaiting harvesting suffered damage. "Except Basmati, all other varieties sown in Jammu province, are small in size, remain unaffected by the storm and rain but basmati crop suffered damages. Moreover, the maize crop has also suffered damages to some extent", he said. |
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